ST. MARTIN PARISH — As early December settles across Louisiana, many residents are starting to ask the same question that seems to pop up each winter: When does crawfish season actually begin? According to St. Martin Parish crawfish farmer Jude Mequet, the answer depends far more on the weather than the calendar. “There’s no set date — the bugs tell you when they’re going to start running,” he said while checking his ponds this week.
Mequet has started grading the first crawfish appearing in his traps, separating the larger ones from the smaller ones. He said most of what he’s pulling up this early in the season simply isn’t ready. Some crawfish still lack the black line on their tails—a signal they have little to no meat. “See, this one doesn’t have any meat in it. See how it doesn’t have a line like this one,” he said, comparing two side by side.
Demonstrating how he sorts them, he added, “Now all that’s left is your medium to large, and then those are going to go in the sack right here.”
Mequet said farmers rely heavily on warming temperatures before crawfish begin moving in large numbers. “If you want big, beautiful crawfish, that's going to happen a little bit later on when it starts warming up, after the crawfish starts warming up. It takes that warm water to make them really start moving,” he said.
Todd Fontenot, an extension agent with the LSU Ag Center, said producers cannot force the season to start earlier than conditions allow. “It’s not a switch that producers can turn on and off and say 'Today, I want to harvest nice crawfish,'” he said.
Fontenot explained that cold weather slows the animals’ movement and growth. “The colder it is, the less they move around, and the less they move around, the less they forge and eat. And the lower amount they eat, the slower they grow,” he said. Still, he noted the outlook remains strong. “It looks optimistic for the continuous future as long as we don’t have any serious adverse effects from Mother Nature,” he said.
Fontenot described crawfish production as an ongoing cycle rather than a traditional start-and-stop season, adding, “Crawfish season never starts and never ends, it’s a continuous cycle.”
For now, farmers statewide are watching temperatures closely, waiting for the ponds to warm enough for the year’s first strong run.
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